Parish History

CAMBORNE (St. Martin), a market-town and parish, in the union of Redruth, E. division of the hundred of Penwith, W. division of Cornwall, 4 miles (W. S. W.) from Redruth, and 267 (S. W.) from London, on the road from Truro to Penzance. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Wesleyans, and Bryanites.[1]

Camborne is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Cornwall. Other places in the parish include: Adjewhells, Barripper, and Roseworthy.

The church is dedicated to St Martin and St Meriadoc: it is entirely of granite, of 15th century date and is listed Grade I. There is a western tower and the aisles are identical in design: an outer south aisle was added in 1878. St Martin was added to the original dedication to St Meriadoc in the 15th century.

An inscribed altar stone found at Chapel Ia, Troon (now set in the altar of the parish church), and dated to the tenth or eleventh centuries, attests to the existence of a settlement then. The chapel of St Ia was recorded in 1429 and a holy well was nearby. The site was called Fenton-ear (i.e. the well of Ia). The stone is very similar to one now in the garden at Pendarves, used as the base for a sundial.

Camborne churchyard contains a number of crosses collected from nearby sites: the finest is one found in a well at Crane in 1896 but already known from William Borlase's account of it when it was at Fenton-ear. Two other chapels are known to have existed in the medieval period: one not far from the parish church was dedicated to Our Lady and St Anne and one at Menadarva (derived from Merther-Derwa) was one of Celtic origin dedicated to St Derwa, Virgin, but mentioned in 1429

Neighbouring Parishes

England Jurisdictions 1851 can be used to locate neighbouring parishes by clicking on the "Options" tab and selecting "List Contiguous Parishes."

Resources

Civil registration

Births, marriages and deaths were kept by the government from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is Free BMD.

Church records

Camborne, Cornwall Genealogy parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Records for Camborne cover 1538-1946, these registers are kept at the County Record Office, County Hall, Truro TR1 3AY.

The Family History Library has microfilmed parish registers from 1837-1946 and bishop’s transcripts from 1684-1772. Microfilm numbers can be found at FamilySearch.

Images of parish registers are available online at FamilySearch under Records. Parish registers refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference: P 27.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks

An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for [Http://www.cornwall-opc.org/Par new/a d/camborne.php Camborne]. Sally Cann has a Camborne website with history and transcriptions for the parish including Tuckingmill,Cornwall and census transcription links.

Census records

Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census Records and Indexes Online. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library. The first film number is 241263.

Poor Law Unions

Probate records

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cornwall Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers

There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Valuable web sites are: